Friday, January 20, 2006

This is it

You know that Kenny Loggins song, "This is it?"

This is it
Your waiting is over
No room to run - no way to hide
No time for wondering
It's here - the moment is now...

Kinda my theme song today. Today is the day that we sell the first home we ever bought together. We worked quite late last night finishing up the cleaning and packing in the basement. Champs finished cleaning and packing the last of the stuff in the upstairs room my Mom lived in. I packed box after box on the main floor. Today we go to the closing and sign it all away to a very nice military man, his wife and their 5 children (only three of whom are young enough to live at home - it's not that big of a house!) Then we'll come back here and finish the cleaning.

Tomorrow we move into a tiny little duplex a couple of miles west of here that we are renting. The kitchen is miniscule and the bathroom even more so. It is old and smells old. Some life and a lot of Odo-ban will take care of that, though. It would feel like a step backward except it is our first positive step forward. More than a year ago now (sheesh - 18 months or something like that), we made the decision to move to IL to be with Champ's family. We want the family life and education that Sweet Girl will have there. We want to take her out of the area we live in where respect is a dead notion. And now, finally, it is beginning. We will stay at the duplex until Sweet Girl finishes kindergarten and then, assuming Champs has a good prognosis on his corneal transplant (it will be a year old on April 27, so we can hope the rejection is being quelled by now), we will begin our move.

I was saying to Champs yesterday that it is a good thing we don't love the house we're moving to. The things that irk us will keep us focused on our goals. In the meantime, though, we will make a life in this little overnight case of a house. I have to laugh; here it is, still early morning (no one else is up yet) and I've already added a shopping trip to my list of things to do today. Champs will roll his eyes when he hear this, but I have to go to Target. See, the master bedroom is so narrow that we can't put my dresser in it. We were planning on storing it downstairs, but it occurred to me that, with some rearranging, we can put it in Sweet Girl's room. Best for me, cause I'll still have a dresser and best for the guys who are moving everything. It's pretty big and it would be much easier for it to not have to go downstairs!

The challenge, though, is that it means we will have to put Sweet Girl's bed right up against the bathroom wall. That wall has an access panel to the tub. Now, that wouldn't freak out you or me, but to a 5-year-old, that's just a small door into her room that shouldn't be there. I know she won't like it. I had planned to put her dresser in front of the panel so she never had to know it was there. With her bed there, though, that is not an option. I was lying awake and realized that a white headboard and princess canopy (cheap at Target - I checked :-) will cover up the panel and make her love her new room. How smart is Mommy? (hey, I said "smart", not "sneaky". This is creative problem solving at its best, folks!)

I'm lucky, though, that Sweet Girl is going to her best friend's house overnight tonight. That way, she'll miss the bulk of the move and I can get her room situated (somewhat, anyway) before she comes home - including covering that panel.

So, add another thing to our amazingly overwhelmingly long to do list for today. Oh well, it will get done. It must. Our friends will be here to help us move tomorrow and we promised them a smooth move. If pure cussed organizational spirit can deliver, then that is what it will be.

So, this is it. Good and bad, happy and sad, give and take. Sounds like my marriage vows, actually. That being the case, I know we'll get through these next few days. We have God and each other and all the promises that stand behind both.

But man, am I going to miss my big, sunny kitchen!

Monday, January 16, 2006

Sweet Girlisms

I am going to try to post Sweet Girlisms as they happen. They won't be part of my normal 2-step posting and will occur whenever. This is the best way to capture these gems as they are given. They're priceless, you know.

My brother-in-law, Motor, just celebrated his 25th birthday on Christmas Eve. Since we were visiting Hometown City for the holidays, Sweet Girl was there to witness the celebration. It must have made an impact. Sweet Girl has been talking about what it will be like when she is an adult. Then yesterday as we were driving, out of the blue, Sweet Girl proclaimed,

"Mom, when I am 25 I will be a woman just like Uncle Motor!"


Here's a few comments from this post:
kenju said...
Yes, indeed, toooo funny!

princssis said...
LOL! I was debating whether to tell Motor about this. I haven't........YET.
Hee-hee

Russ said...
Hey Blondie...
My mother remembers every cutsie little thing my siblings and I ever said. And she manages to bring them up at the most inappropriate times.
Good luck with that...

Sunday, January 1, 2006

An Ornament of Optimism

There are many things in this world that I am very laid back about. Then there are the few things in this world that I am over-the-top meticulous about. Folding would be one thing; I like my clothes folded a certain way and I hate it when they aren't right. Geekwif and my mom understand this; Geekwif because she is the same way and my mom because she lived with me for two years. Likewise, I am particular about certain recipes. Spaghetti is spaghetti and tacos are tacos, but let me makes something like chili or lasagna and every ingredient must be the best brand, the freshest vegetables and be made exactly to my specifications. This makes it perfect.

Another way in which I am a perfectionist is with my Christmas tree. Whether fresh or fake, the decorations must be placed just so on the tree. I have many ornaments to hang and they all mean something special to me. Each year I buy at least two more ornaments, sometimes three. One is for Sweet Girl and one is for the family. I like the family ornament to say something about our year or what is important to us. This year I had a struggle finding the perfect ornament for our family. I must have searched 3 or 4 different stores. Champs and I went to Hallmark and couldn't find anything there that spoke to us. We found a beautiful Irish girl doll ornament for Sweet Girl, but nothing for us. I had pretty much given up.

Tonight I had to run to Target to get a filter for my vacuum cleaner. While I was there, I noticed that the Christmas stock had been marked down to 75% off so I strolled through to see what was left. And I found it; the perfect ornament for 2005.

You see, 2005 has been a hard year for me and Champs. We expected to move to IL, but due to health issues for both of us, we are still here. We have struggled financially. We've worked on projects that took months and moths to complete. We spent months prepping our house to sell and waiting for a buyer. Then December hit. The darkest hour is just before the dawn, or so they say. So true. All of my personal struggles came to a head in December. The first two weeks of the month were so hard that I could barely write in my blog. However, the last two weeks of December began to pull things together. We got some pressing business solved, we sold our house and found short-term rental housing at a great price. Champs and I made a new commitment to a financial plan and for the first time I began to feel something I haven't felt in a long time. I have a new sense that things will get steadily better and we will finally begin to move forward on plans that are more than a year old.

And so, the ornament that I found today is perfect. It is silver with a pave-encrusted front and it hangs from a pure white ribbon, front and center on our beautiful tree. It will bring in 2006 with us tomorrow. You see, it proclaims just one beautiful word: HOPE.





Here's some comments from this post:
Geekwif said...
Hey, I was with you on that Target run and I didn't see that ornament. It sounds lovely! Did you hide it? Did you go back later?
I'm just so confused.

Blond Girl said...
Later in the evening after our Target run, I went to Cub for snackies and then on to the Crystal Target for a new hepa filter for the vacuum. That's why you didn't see it. Trust me, if I had found it while you were there, you would have oo'd and ah'd over its perfection with me. You'll see it later today, I'm sure. I can't wait for you to see your Christmas present!

princssis said...
More than one Target visit in one day? Oh, the life!
Pardon me, but what does "pave-encrusted" mean?
Regardless, your ornament sounds beautiful. Congratulations on the find!

Shannin said...
I get a few new ornaments each year. I didn't do it last year since we had only been in the house 6 weeks and things weren't going well. This year, I made up for it and shelled out $$$ for a Christopher Radko Minnesota state ornament. It's very nice, and commemorates our move to "the great white north."
Your new additions sounds lovely, and very indicative of the future.

Sandy said...
Sounds beautifully perfect.

Russ said...
Sometimes God sends us little messages of HOPE...

Melonie said...
I think we all need a little HOPE. This was a wonderful post.